Part 4 Syntax or point-and-click?

British Social Attitudes 1986 Q.114, page 43b

Open blank data file

Open a new syntax file and write: title 'Page 43b of BSA 1986'. data list file 'f:bsa86.dat' records 23 /15 v v v v

Page 43b of BSA 1986 Data List will read 23 records from F:\bsa86.dat Variable Rec Start End Format V F2.0 V F1.0 V F1.0 V F2.0 SPSS reports how data will be read

Data editor fills Name Type Width and Decimals columns

var labels v1508 'Q105a Household size‘ v1510 'Q105b Marital status‘ v1511 'Q106a Sex of respondent‘ v1512 'Q106b Age of respondent last birthday'. value labels v 'Married‘ 2 'Living together‘ 3 'Sep or div‘ 4 'Widowed‘ 5 'Not married' 8 'DK' 9 'N/A‘ /v 'Men' 2 'Women'. save out 'f:page43b.sav'. Now write: missing values v1508 v1512 (98,99) v1510 (8,9).

Data editor fills Missing column

and Label and Values columns page43b.sav has also been saved to drive f:

Adjust column widths to see what you've got

What's in the file?

Utilities…Variables lets you slide up and down, but that's all

Utilities…File info.. sends (too much) file information to output

What point-and-click can’t do

display.

display labels.

display variables.

V2018 V2019 V2020 V2021 V2022 V Number of cases read: 5 Number of cases listed: 5 list list v2018 to v2023 /cases 5.

A useful trick

Using COMPUTE to generate groups Instead of using IF or DO IF… END IF… Use compute and recode Check frequencies Run crosstab Compute newvar=var1*10 + var2 Recode into desired groups

Bloomsbury and Islington Health and Lifestyle survey 1988 freq var v670 v715. cro v715 by v670. Check frequencies and run a crosstab with:

Frequency count for component variables

Intermediate crosstab

Create new variable with: compute famstat=v670*10+v715. recode famstat ( =1) (22 23=2) ( =3)(12 13=4) (else=sysmis). value labels famstat 1 'Single: no kids' 2 'Couple: no kids' 3 'Single: + kids' 4 'Couple: + kids'. freq var famstat.

Frequency count for new variable

Another useful trick

Using COMPUTE to recode To reverse values on items in a scale Add 1 to the highest code value Subtract the item value from this figure eg: Agree – Disagree scale coded 1-5 Subtracting the item value from 6 reverses it

And one more

Using MEANS to get % Choose a value or values to investigate Recode these to 100 and everything else to zero Run MEANS The figures are percentages and the row totals are the base n

…and now Let Battle Begin!